Yes, we did it! A COMPLETE classroom makeover! It was a lot of work but absolutely worth it! Every day, I walk into my room, smell the new paint (still), look around and pause for a moment – I take a moment and realize how lucky I am to work in such an amazing environment each day. One would think this would go away, but it’s been a year and it hasn’t yet. I used to look at pictures of beautiful, organized, decorated rooms and of course I wanted to do it but could I? I should add that, anyone who knows me, knows, that I have absolutely no visualization skills (which stresses people who do have them out) and surely am NOT a decorator. However, now that it’s done, here are some reasons why I would recommend doing it:
You feel a sense of accomplishment (which let me tell you, is a great feeling) that you are reminded of every day.
(when I walk in my back door every morning)
You get to enter an atmosphere that you love so when you have a “moment” you can take a breath and look around and realize things aren’t really so bad.
You get to create a “home” for everything – yours and the kids! Do you know what a difference it makes when the kids know exactly where to put things away?! And, oh my gosh… YOU can find stuff… when you need it!
You create a room that is special. It’s not like every other classroom the children walk into.
If nothing else, do it for the smell! Isn’t that in itself worth a lot? – Kindergarten rooms can definitely get an unpleasant “smell” to them.
HOW WE GOT STARTED
My friend at Schoolgirl Style (who IS able to visualize) is not only a kindergarten teacher but also a classroom decorator! How perfect right?! That’s what I thought. After looking at her website numerous times, (here are a few quick shots from her classroom)
having some discussions with her and looking at a few other things online, Jen came up with this grand idea of doing a classroom makeover… in MY room. She simply said, “Let’s paint everything white,” and with that we started our journey. (I think she had no idea I was going to jump on board so fast).
(this is Jen’s look when she has… an IDEA… lol)
TIMELINE
Spring 2016: Now, this was in the Spring of 2016 so there was no way we could paint everything (I mean EVERYTHING) white until the summer but we could begin planning for our (or HER) big ideas.
June 2016: I headed up north for the summer – but still had intentions to completely re-do my classroom.
I pinned a lot of things… including a lot of rugs I liked.
Jen joined me up north to do… soooomething. We also decided that we should buy the rug first and then pick colors and a theme to go with it.
Buuuut, we had our kids…
So, we ordered the rug!
July 12th, 2016: I went home for a night (to pick up different friends for my kids) and stopped in to check on my classroom (the janitors take everything out in the summer so they can wax our floors) – that I was thinking was going to be empty.
NOPE! Not at all! Instead, it just happened to be the day they were moving my all of my stuff out into the hall. So much for getting anything done thaaat day! I ended up moving everything with them – not my plan at all!
July 16th, 2016: Everything was moved back into my room and put in a pile in the middle. So, where to begin? Jen grabbed the black paint we bought and started on the ugly grey metal closet doors.
In the meantime, I had gone shopping at the Dollar Tree and picked out many, many different baskets trying to figure out what colors to do. This was the point at which we decided on 5 colors: pink, green, orange, blue, and purple.
Our thoughts were to do the baskets in pink, green, and orange then pull in some of the blue and purple with chairs and lamps. We just knew they would all match the new rug beautifully.
July 20th, 2016: Jen (and the kids) came back up north to join me (and my kids of course) but this time, we were determined to get something done!
But of course, only after swimming and tubing and paddle boating and… and… and!
Soooo, we painted some lamps, shelves and tried out a rocking chair. We were feeling super accomplished.
Then I went home and looked at my room again. (insert shocked face)
I pinned a few more things / ideas. And Jen took a few pieces of furniture to her house to paint. Her husband was thrilled.
July 29th & 30th, 2016: Painting Party! The room was ready to start painting! I called a bunch of people and we just started going at it. In two days, the room was done! Well…the walls were done.
We still had to deal with the furniture. Other than a few shelves that were being stored in my garage (and, oh boy, my husband loved that), we had A LOT to paint.
August 4th, 2016: I had to come home for one thing or another and decided we needed to tackle the yellow table. Yellow was NOT going to go with the new color scheme. After much discussion we decided on blue. And as soon as it was done, I might have changed my mind. However, our good friend Carrie had a plan. She was convinced I would love it so we left it blue for the time being.
August 6th, 2016: Back up north to celebrate Jen’s birthday at the cabin.
But, we haaaaad to squeeze in some painting if we were ever going to be ready by the time school was going to start. We couldn’t tear ourselves away from the lake during the day so once the kids were in bed we spread out tarps and painted chairs, put more coats on the shelves and painted the lamp shades! Jen forced me to stay awake long past my bedtime but we got a lot done.
Then, I laid around and pinned some more.
We realized that while you can spray paint at night, you better be prepared to spend time during the day fixing all the missed spots.
August 11, 2016: Heading home for the weekend to paint more furniture! But first, I had to figure out how to pack all my stuff into my van because my dad does not approve of “projects” at the cabin.
Party #2!
WOW! There’s a lot! (of furniture)
Days of painting followed!
The furniture that we painted outside had to be moved in each night which was very frustrating. So on the last night, exhausted and drained, Jen and I came to the conclusion that it made more sense to move the furniture to its rightful home. What we failed to realize was, as new furniture was purchased through the summer, we really had no clue exactly how we were going to arrange things.
Then it was 2:00 AM and we decided to leave.
However, we must have gotten sidetracked because then it was 3:00 AM. We really did call it a night. Like we’re about to now.
Then I haaaaad to head back up north (hahahaha) and pinned more things.
August 22nd, 2016: Professional Development gets in the way of setting up my room.
Yes, this is how my room looked the day before Open House.
August 23rd, 2016: Professional Development…again! And Open House Day! Call in the troops because someone had to get my room ready while I was in meetings.
When I returned from meetings I had this beautiful board outside my room and with “troops” comes kids but they were loving my new furniture!
